MIGHTY IN GOD

“So Jotham became mighty, because he ordered his ways before the Lord his God” (2 Chronicles 27:6, ESV).

Jotham was the son of Uzziah, one of the kings who ruled the southern kingdom known as Judah. Israel was split at this time, with Judah in the south and Israel in the north.

Apparently Jotham ran the government of Judah while his father was incapacitated and when his father died he became king. Jotham was one of the few kings of Judah that the Bible has nothing negative to say about.

Here’s the backstory of Uzziah and his son Jotham.

 

Uzziah was a great king and ruled Judah for fifty-two years. The prophet Zechariah was Uzziah’s spiritual mentor and teacher and 2 Chronicles 26:5 tells us, “[Uzziah] set himself to seek God . . . and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper.”

Toward the end of Uzziah’s leadership of Judah something unfortunate happened. Verses15 and 16 say, “His fame spread far . . . till he was strong. But when he was strong, he grew proud to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God.”

Uzziah became proud and thought that he could meddle in the temple and redo how worship was being conducted. He decided that he would be the one to burn incense on the altar rather than the priests.

The moment the high priest saw what Uzziah was doing, he and his associates went to stop him. They pled with him to quickly get out of the altar area where he had no right to be.

Uzziah responded in anger (verse19) as if to say, “Just who do you think you are talking to? I’m the king! Now get out of my way.”

The moment Uzziah’s anger flashed forth, leprosy broke out on his forehead. The priests quickly rushed Uzziah out of the temple and into seclusion, as was required by the Law. Uzziah’s son, Jotham, took over the reins of the government, as his father was sequestered.

What a tragic end to a righteous life and kingship, but pride has a way of introducing tragedy into life.

Upon his father’s death, Jotham became the king and 2 Chronicles 27:6 became his lasting legacy: “Jotham became mighty, because he ordered his ways before the Lord his God.”

I believe every Christian who is serious about his relationship with God has a desire to be the strongest believer he can be. This little story offers us a peek into how to cooperate in making that happen.

The word mighty in this verse is also translated “to be strong, powerful or resolute.”

The word ordered is sometimes translated “firmly established, prepared, in obedience.”

Another way to say this verse might be, “Jotham became a mighty man of God because he lived his whole life in obedience to the Lord; he did not deviate in any way.”

Is this kind of strength a supernatural gifting? Are some people predestined to be more righteous and strong than others?

I would say a hearty “no” to both of these questions. God doesn’t “gift” some people with strength and courage and others with weakness. Nor does He predestine some to be more righteous than others. Instead, God has given us the power to choose. Yes, He does know what is going to happen in your life tomorrow; after all, He is God but He restrains Himself and allows us to choose!

We have the power to choose how we are going to live our life out before Him. We have the power to choose how much we pray, how much we read and study the Word, how much we are going to allow the Holy Spirit to use us.

When Joseph (see Genesis 39) and Daniel (Daniel 1:8) refused to compromise but chose to be strong in their commitment to God, then God was free to begin the process of making them into “mighty men.”

Let’s talk briefly about this process of preparation.

Strength is brought into being by preparation. You only have to look to athletics to see that those who become champions are the ones who prepared themselves. The apostle Paul talked about running the race (see 2 Timothy 4:6).

Power is not the result of a momentary flash of God’s blessing (that’s a miracle) but the result of steady growth in Him, in His ways. It is the result of time, of the work of the Holy Spirit, of the experiences of a man of God who is desirous of growing in Him. A mighty man of God is the result of the tenacity of a committed spirit that says, “I may fail the first time and the second time but I will get up off the ground and keep going on. I will not quit, I will not stop.”

And this is not legalism! It is not legalism to firmly establish your ways before the Lord. A legalist has a clock in one hand, a Bible in the other hand, and a grimace on his face.

A man who has established his ways before the Lord has a Bible in one hand, nothing in the other — which is raised to God in praise — and a smile on his face!

Jotham finished well because he ordered his ways before the Lord his God.

KNOWING THE VOICE OF THE LORD

“The sheep follow Him, for they know His voice” (John 10:4, ESV). A couple of verses later it says, “This figure of speech Jesus used with them [the disciples], but they did not understand what He was saying to them” (10:6 ).

Not much has changed in two thousand years. One of the more frequently asked questions by born-again Christians, both young and old in years and in the faith, is, “How can I know when the Lord is speaking to me?”

Let me share a couple of stories and insights that I hope will take some of the mystery out of “knowing the voice of the Lord.”

An autistic boy in Bangkok, Thailand, was in his first day at a special needs school. For some reason he started crying and crawled out a window. The classroom was on the third floor, so he ended up sitting just outside the room on a window ledge. His teacher and others from the school were not successful in getting him to come back inside and so the fire department was summoned.

As the firemen tried to get the boy to come inside, one of them overheard the boy’s mother say that he liked comic book superheroes. The fireman had an idea and rushed back to the firehouse. Donning a Spiderman costume that he wore at school assemblies to liven up fire safety presentations, he returned to the school. This time the fireman, dressed in a superhero costume, beckoned and the little boy eagerly went to Spiderman!

The little boy would not go to strangers but when he saw Spiderman, he felt safe because this was someone he could trust.

A second story is about a minister and his wife visiting the famous biblical sites in Israel. They came upon several shepherds and their flocks and watched as the shepherds put all the sheep together in the same enclosure for the night. The visitors wondered how they would separate the sheep the next day.

The minister got up early the next morning to watch the procedure. The first shepherd went to the enclosure and began to sing and speak to his sheep. One by one, his sheep filed out to follow him. The same thing happened with the other two flocks.

 

The minister asked one of the shepherds “Does this always happen with the sheep? Do they always recognize their shepherd’s voice?” The shepherd replied that the only time it doesn’t happen is when a sheep is sickly and then it doesn’t respond correctly to any instructions the shepherd gives.

How do we get to the place of knowing and responding to His voice? Jesus answered this when He said, “My sheep know My voice.”

Let’s get one thing out of the way. Many Christians don’t hear or recognize the voice of the Lord because they are sickly, and I don’t mean physically sick. I mean they have allowed sinful things to muddy up their ability to hear. Willfully holding sin in our life breaks our communication lines with Him (see Psalm 66:18).

How did the disciples get to know His voice? For over three years they were with Him daily. They lived with Him, ate with Him, observed Him as He ministered. For all this time Jesus was the disciples’ mentor as they talked with Him and they listened as He patiently answered their questions. He daily taught them about the kingdom of God.

But the recognition took time and did not happen quickly, which is a major struggle for our “instant everything” age. You are not going to hurry God’s process, no matter how many cute formulas you quote. It isn’t going to happen that way! It’s going to take time!

But it will happen:

• As we talk with Him and He with us on a daily/regular basis. This is prayer . . . talking with Him!
• As we spend time in His Word, we will find that we begin to differentiate between His voice and the other voices calling for our attention. His voice will carry with it a reassuring familiarity that resonates with trust and peace. Most of His voice we will ever hear will be communicated through the written Word, and every voice that we think is His will always be in total harmony with the Bible.

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20, ESV).This passage was written to believers who had grown cold in their relationship with Him; it was written to the church at Laodicea that had strayed from their relationship with the Lord. The verse goes on to detail the desire of the Lord to have intimate fellowship with them. The word “eat” means to have intimate communication . . . heart to heart. In this proximity we will hear His voice and learn to recognize it . . . this is the communication of a married couple.

“My sheep know my voice.” Perhaps this verse would be better rendered, “My sheep get to know My voice.”

I HEAR THE SOUND OF A HEAVY RAIN!

  

The prophets of Baal were all dead, slaughtered after the fire of God fell on Mt. Carmel. Afterwards, Elijah told Ahab to “go, eat and celebrate, for I hear the sound of a heavy rain” (1 Kings 18:41).

The sky, however, was a bright blue, with no clouds anywhere. How could Elijah say such a thing? What he said was not based on what he was seeing with the natural eye, nor on what he thought might happen. Elijah was speaking by faith, saying what he knew God had told him would happen.

“I hear the sound of a heavy rain.” In the original language the word for “sound” is often translated in other passages to be “voice” and frequently “voice of the Lord” (Genesis 3:8). Elijah was not being presumptuous; he was not confessing something for which there was no basis. He had heard the voice of the Lord!

At the very beginning of this chapter, God told Elijah, “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.” The Lord’s word was still alive in Elijah’s spirit even though the sky was cloudless. Elijah knew what was about to happen because he had heard the voice of the Lord say it!

This is a colossal truth for all of us. When the Lord quickens a promise to you and His Spirit brings it alive in you, the combination of the Word and the quickening of the Spirit is God’s voice speaking to you. That’s the basis for you to step out in faith: “I hear the sound of a heavy rain.”

Presumption and wishful thinking are not a basis to step out in faith. God’s Word is true and when He speaks it into our heart and spirit, we then have the right to step out in faith.

Elijah heard the sound of God’s voice in the promise that took him to Zarephath, and from that voice he dared to step out in faith and declare, “The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil shall not run dry.” It was the same reassuring voice that said to him, “I will send rain on the land,” and it was with that confidence that Elijah could say, “I hear the sound of a heavy rain.”

The only problem with all of this was that there still was not a cloud in the sky! Elijah went to the top of Mt. Carmel and “bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees” (18:42).

This is the posture of an expectant mother about to give birth and it is also the spiritual posture of intercession. Elijah assumed the position of the persistent intercessor (*see note below) and said to his servant, “Go and look toward the sea” (18:43). The servant returned and said, “There is nothing there.” Six times the servant looked and each time he came back with the same report, “I don’t see anything.” On the seventh time the servant said, “A cloud the size of a man’s hand is rising from the sea” (18:44).

Elijah immediately sent a message to Ahab: “You’d better get in your chariot and get out of here before the rain starts and you get stuck in the mud” (18:44).

Today’s church seems to be quite strong with its teaching and understanding of faith but what happened to the prayer life that must accompany faith?  Large attendance must not be confused with power! May God forgive us for our lack of consistency in prayer.

 

Elijah went to prayer to show the nation that he was not something special but simply a man God was using. It is through prayer that we display our dependency on Him. Prayer is an act of humility and homage. “I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit” (Isaiah 57:15, NIV).

“The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops” (James 5:16-18, NIV).

  

As it started to rain, Ahab jumped into his chariot and headed for home (1 Kings 18:45). And then something unique happened. “The power of God came upon Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel” (v. 46).

The literal rendering of the phrase “the power of God came on Elijah” is “the hand of God touched Elijah.” I believe the Lord was pleased with Elijah, and as a father would do with his son who has brought him joy, God reached out and put His loving hand on Elijah. The hand of the Lord is a symbol of power and as the hand of the Lord touched Elijah, he was so energized in the natural that he outran Ahab’s chariot for a distance of about twenty miles.

Could it be any clearer? Could it be any simpler? It was when Elijah came out of prayer, out of an intense period of intercession, that the power of God manifested itself by resting on him.

The hand of the Lord, the power of God, will not come to a prayerless church . . . it will not! We will not hear the sound of rain in our land until we humble ourselves and find our place in prayer! (See 2 Chronicles 7:14.)

Do we want to hear the sound of heavy rain?

*Definition of persistent intercessor — This is the prayer warrior who says, “I will not give up, I will not let go, I will not stop ‘asking, seeking, knocking’ until I see the fulfillment of that which God has promised!”

DANIEL'S PRAYER FOR NATIONAL HEALING

  

Immediately following the dedication of the newly-built temple in Jerusalem, God appeared to Solomon and made a promise. He said, “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this temple as a place for Myself, as a house where sacrifices can be offered. My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to every prayer made in the temple. At times I may cause the rains to stop, the crops to fail and sickness to come among the people. Should that happen, here is My word for you: ‘If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land’ (2 Chronicles 7:14, NKJV).”

This Scripture is a clear call to God’s people on how to appeal to the Father and His promise to come and heal the land. This passage is not a prayer, it is a promise!

Daniel was a man of God who knew how to keep his faith alive in extremely difficult circumstances. The Jews were in captivity in Babylon and faced a troubling and uncertain future. Daniel’s prayer for the deliverance of his people is one of the best models of prayer for us as our nation and the world sinks into the madness of the end times.

The brevity of this blog allows me to touch only the highlights of this powerful, intercessory prayer. I would encourage all who are burdened for our churches, our nation and our world to take time to read, meditate on and pray over Daniel 9:3-19.

In the first verses of Daniel 9, we read that in the writings of Jeremiah, Daniel discovered a prophecy that the Jewish people would be held in captivity for seventy years. I believe Daniel’s spirit leapt as he read this and realized how close they were to the fulfillment of the prophecy.  But at the same time Daniel knew the Jewish nation was not living for and serving God. He knew that unless there was a change in the hearts of the people and they turned to the Lord, their freedom would be short-lived and God would put them right back into an oppressive situation.

Verse 3 — “I set my face toward the Lord God.” Daniel was determined to touch God with his prayer. To “set his face” means he was intent on achieving a specific result. He was going to pray through!

Verse 5 — “We have sinned and committed iniquity.” Daniel did not point fingers at others. He took ownership of the sin and iniquity of the people. I call this a “we” prayer and the use of “we” establishes that Daniel identified with his people; he did not point at them and say, “They are to blame, they have done wrong.”

Verse 6 — “We have not listened to the messengers [the prophets] you sent to bring your word” (my paraphrase). We heard the words but we did not do what Your word instructed us to do.

Verse 7 — “Righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face.” There is nothing arrogant or proud in Daniel’s prayer. This is the expression of the humility that God says He will respond to, the humility spoken of in 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If My people . . . will humble themselves.”

Verse 10 — “We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord.” No excuses are being offered. “We are disobedient; we have taken the word of the Lord lightly and have not been obedient!”

Verse 12 — “He has confirmed His words.” Even in judgment God is faithful to His word—He promised that curses/judgment would come because of disobedience (Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28).

Verse 13 — “All this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God.” All that had happened to the Jews had not brought them to a place of prayer nor had they turned from their sinful and unfaithful ways. Are we any different? Will we ever learn?

Daniel then appeals to God for intervention. Verses 16-19 are, I believe, the heart of Daniel’s prayer as he asks God for four things:

1. First, he asked that the Lord turn away His anger and wrath from Jerusalem (verse 16).
2. Second, Daniel asked that a new day of blessing would come for His temple: “Cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary” (verse 17).
3. Third, Daniel appealed to the Lord to open both His ear and His eye to the desolation of the people. Daniel appeals to the mercy of God and acknowledges the lack of righteousness among the people (verse 18).
4. Fourth, Daniel calls on the Lord to forgive His people and to take action to return them to their land, to the city of Jerusalem and to the temple (verse 19).

The contemporary church is looking for the fulfillment of 2 Chronicles 7:14 without having to meet the conditions of the promise. We want the healing of the land without humility, without repentance, without prayer. The majority of the church of today sees no need for a visitation of God. They are neither hot nor cold but, in fact, are poor, blind and naked and are not in a place to contribute anything meaningful as the world descends into chaos (see Revelation 3:17). 

Daniel’s prayer is worthy of our attention. It is a model of how to pray for the promise of 2 Chronicles 7:14 to be fulfilled.

It is time for us to humble ourselves and ask God to forgive us for our failures and extend His great mercy to our land. And if we will, He will!